Sip + Share is a fundraising campaign supporting Soufra, a nonprofit kitchen and social enterprise led by Palestinian women refugees in Beirut. Through their morning coffee ritual, sobhiyyeh, Soufra provides women with skill-building, training, and community support for their financial and emotional wellbeing.
Given the recent escalations in Beirut, Soufra is extending the sobhiyyeh beyond their kitchen walls to provide emergency relief, cooking and delivering hot meals to displaced families. For the cost of a cup of coffee, your donation will support these emergency efforts and help sustain Soufra’s kitchen long term, allowing women entrepreneurs to grow, earn, and serve their community.
In Lebanon, Palestinian refugees face exclusion from critical facets of social, political and economic life. The Burj El Barajneh refugee camp is located in Beirut and was established in 1948 to accommodate refugees who fled from Palestine in the aftermath of the 1948 Nakba. The one-square kilometer camp is home to approximately 31,000 refugees, including thousands who have fled Syria since the onset of the Syrian conflict in 2011. Overcrowding and dilapidated infrastructure are pressing issues for the camp’s residents, particularly women with limited access to private, green, safe spaces.
Sip & Share aims to keep a community ritual, sobhiyyeh, going amidst trying times by supporting Soufra, a non-profit community kitchen social enterprise in the refugee camp that is led by and supports Palestinian women in Beirut to build community, generate income, and celebrate their history and traditions through cooking.
This campaign was created before the ongoing war arrived to Lebanon. We have since widened the scope of this Sip and Share campaign to support the Soufra team in cooking 500+ daily hot meals for folks currently taking shelter in the camp. These individuals and families include those who have fled from South Lebanon and neighboring areas in Beirut, as well as original Burj El Baarajneh families who remain in the camp. We have kept the original campaign material below in hopes that the funds can be used in the short term for relief and in the long term to resume the Sip and Share programming.
Palestinian women in Burj El Barajneh additionally experience exacerbated challenges due to scarce employment opportunities and societal norms limiting their participation in public life. The context of the COVID-19 pandemic and Lebanon's financial crisis have further marginalized these women, leading to increased cases of mental health problems and an urgent need to create safe spaces for women to socialize and establish support networks for addressing these issues. More recent tensions caused by aggression in Palestine, its portrayal in media, and the spillover of conflict in Lebanon have only heightened anxiety and emphasized the necessity of providing support to Palestinian women refugees affected by this culmination of issues and dire living circumstances.
A morning ritual where women across the Middle East gather and exchange their news over a freshly brewed cup of Turkish coffee and fresh light bites.
Your gift supports women in Burj El Barajneh camp to host weekly sobhiyyehs over one year. The sobhiyyeh is often the sole opportunity for these women to gather and discuss their daily struggles, exchange advice, share news and opportunities, and nurture friendships. Women also engage in trainings and social activities that support their financial and psychosocial wellbeing. Sobhiyyehs are catered by Soufra entrepreneurs, providing needed income and social engagement.
Short term: Fund two hot meal portions for those displaced in the camp.
Long term: Create a safe, inviting space for women to enjoy the sobhiyyeh ritual and socialize.
Short term: Fund 10 hot meals portions for those displaced in the camp.
Long term: Provide training sobhiyyehs that promote wellbeing and economic and social empowerment – four trainings each month that support 180 women over a year.
Short term: Fund 25 hot meal portions for those displaced in the camp.
Long term: Provide psychological and psychosocial support for women through the integration of a social worker in sobhiyyehs.
Short term: Fund 62 hot meal portions for those displaced in the camp.
Long term: Give entrepreneurs the opportunity to grow their skills and generate income by catering the sobhiyyehs.
Soufra was founded with investment and management support from Alfanar in 2014. Now, as an alumnus of Alfanar's venture philanthropy portfolio, Alfanar is acting as a fiscal sponsor for the Sip & Share Campaign.
For the cost of a cup of coffee, your donation will help support the nonprofit work of Soufra, a community kitchen/social enterprise led by Palestinian women in Beirut, Lebanon.
